Initial state anisotropies in ultrarelativistic heavy-ion collisions from the Monte Carlo Glauber model

TL;DR

This paper investigates the initial spatial anisotropies in ultrarelativistic heavy-ion collisions using the Monte Carlo Glauber model, focusing on uncertainties from nucleon interaction modeling and correlations, which are crucial for understanding QCD matter properties.

Contribution

It introduces a detailed analysis of how different nucleon-nucleon interaction models and correlations affect initial state anisotropies in heavy-ion collisions.

Findings

Different interaction models produce varying anisotropy predictions.

Nucleon correlations significantly impact initial state fluctuations.

Uncertainty quantification improves the interpretation of experimental data.

Abstract

In hydrodynamicalmodeling of heavy-ion collisions the initial state spatial anisotropies translate into momentum anisotropies of the final state particle distributions. Thus, understanding the origin of the initial anisotropies and quantifying their uncertainties is important for the extraction of specific QCD matter properties, such as viscosity, from the experimental data. In this work we study the wounded nucleon approach in the Monte Carlo Glauber model framework, focusing especially on the uncertainties which arise from the modeling of the nucleon-nucleon interactions between the colliding nucleon pairs and nucleon-nucleon correlations inside the colliding nuclei. We compare the black disk model and a probabilistic profile function approach for the inelastic nucleon-nucleon interactions, and study the effects of initial state correlations using state-of-theart modeling of these.